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Denver still searching for leadership

By Christopher Dempsey The Denver Post

Posted:
12/30/2012 10:37:21 PM MST

Updated:
12/30/2012 10:37:48 PM MST

DENVER -- Consistency, in part, is accompanied by accountability. Players not only have to want to win, they have to stay attentive to the thankless details that make consistency happen. The Nuggets are looking for that.

If leadership on this Denver team were a business, a "help wanted" sign would be posted at the Pepsi Center. Coach George Karl is looking for somebody to take a leadership role on his team. He knows that if the Nuggets (17-15) are to be the contenders he thinks they can be, the players will have to step up and take stock.

"The window of leadership is wide open for anyone who wants to take the responsibility and demand the respect to get this team a little more pure pressure-oriented, more professionally in tune," Karl said. "More focused at shootarounds, the little things that coaches like the team to take rather than it always being on the coaches' shoulders."

The Nuggets hoped Ty Lawson, who signed a huge contract before the season started, would assume the role of leader. But the fourth-year pro from North Carolina hasn't stepped up in that capacity just yet.

And that is despite Karl's constant badgering during the summer, trying to get Lawson into a mind-set to take control.

"He texted me all summer," Lawson said then. "Leadership? I probably have, I'll say, at least 20 of them in my phone. Leadership? What are you doing? Are you leading right now? I'm like, I'm asleep. It's 12 o'clock at night. But the point he wants to get across is definitely coming across.

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Those text messages apparently didn't make the impression Karl hoped they would. Lawson, the most viable candidate to lead the team as the point guard, isn't the only player slow to come around to embracing full-time leadership responsibility. Danilo Gallinari hasn't either. And Andre Iguodala, acquired during the offseason, may still be too new to inject an authoritative voice into the Denver locker room.

"I think he's made small steps," Karl said. "But defining leadership on this team is probably going to be a whole-year process."

The Nuggets survived a tough two months, where 22 of their 32 games were on the road. Of their final 50 games, 31 are at home. So the opportunity is there, before the home fans, to emerge as a team leader. But it definitely is an issue the Nuggets need to address.

Veteran point guard Andre Miller is the acknowledged team leader, because of his many years in the NBA. But he's not a vocal leader, nor is he a starter. Still, Karl said, "I think Andre Miller is probably our 'A' leader. Ty, Gallo, Andre, Kenneth (Faried), I think they are all moving upward, but it's not a spike. I'd like to see someone jump up and take it."

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